[media-credit name=’MEGHAN CONLIN/Herald Photo’ align=’alignnone’ width=’648′][/media-credit]The day after canceling the Associated Students of Madison Student Council elections for the second time in a week, the Student Election Commission prepared for round three Thursday.

The commission rescheduled Student Council elections for this upcoming Tuesday and Wednesday, with polls opening at 10 a.m. and closing at 8 p.m. each day. The elections, to be conducted by paper balloting, will be held at eight locations on the University of Wisconsin campus — the SERF, Van Hise Hall, Steenbock Library, Memorial Union, College Library, Union South, the Health Sciences building and Grainger Hall.

The timing allows ASM the opportunity to conclude its elections before the end of the 13th week of the semester. Under the ASM Constitution, no elections can be held after that time.

"To be honest, I have every confidence [in] the SEC's ability to do the best it can," SEC Chair Tim Leonard said. "And we will do our best to get this done."

The rescheduling was necessary after the Division of Information Technology discovered a computer error in the online-voting system Wednesday that caused a discrepancy between the number of votes cast and the number of votes confirmed for the ASM elections.

DoIT officials told the commission Wednesday that, because of the disparity, they could not validate any of the results and recommended the SEC cancel the election.

The commission's decision to do just that came a week after the commission first canceled the ASM spring elections March 29, after DoIT officials discovered a "technical error" that potentially prevented some students from voting how they intended.

Faced with two election cancellations in a week because of computer errors in the online-voting system, the commission decided during an emergency meeting Wednesday night to scrap the system for the next election in favor of a paper ballot.

The commission affirmed that decision Thursday by a unanimous vote, saying the revamped voting system was the best way to ensure every student got a chance to vote.

"Every student will have the right to vote," Leonard said. "That is a guarantee."

At the conclusion of Wednesday's meeting, the commission also briefly discussed the possibility of reopening the referendum elections that concluded Tuesday after it was revealed the computer error caused a 436-vote discrepancy in that portion of the election.

During Thursday's meeting, though, SEC members ultimately decided to let the results of the referendums stand.

Anticipating a number of complaints contesting the results of this year's elections being filed with the Student Judiciary, commission members reasoned that any election question would eventually have to be resolved by the courts anyway.

"Several complaints are going to be filed, and you may just want to let the court decide this one," Student Judiciary Chief Justice Nick Fox told the commission. "It's going to work its way up to us."

And, with a number of people expressing strong criticism Thursday over the commission's handling of the spring elections, the Student Judiciary might face a full docket in the coming days.

During an open-forum session prior to Thursday's meeting where many people criticized the commission for not canceling the results of the referendum elections when potentially 436 voters did not have their votes counted, many concerns were raised with next week's election.

Some issues brought up included how to ensure students studying abroad had an opportunity to vote — since they are still eligible — and suggesting polls not be placed in the dormitory commons buildings, which would potentially have given freshmen candidates an inherent advantage in campaigning.

The commission addressed these concerns by saying it might create an e-mail absentee ballot and by deciding not to have polling places located at the dormitory commons.

Commission members will meet today and over the weekend to determine the remaining logistical concerns for next week's elections.

— Sundeep Malladi contributed to this report.